Chapter VI.—The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture.

It were tedious to go over all the Prophets and
the Law, specifying what is spoken in enigmas; for almost the whole
Scripture gives its utterances in this way. It may suffice, I think, for
any one possessed of intelligence, for the proof of the point in hand,
to select a few examples.

Now concealment is evinced in the reference of
the seven circuits around the temple, which are made mention of among
the Hebrews; and the equipment on the robe, indicating by the various
symbols, which had reference to visible objects, the agreement which
from heaven reaches down to earth. And the covering and the veil were
variegated with blue, and purple, and scarlet, and linen. And so it was
suggested that the nature of the elements contained the revelation of
God. For purple is from water, linen from the earth; blue, being dark,
is like the air, as scarlet is like fire.

In the midst of the covering and veil, where the
priests were allowed to enter, was situated the altar of incense, the
symbol of the earth placed in the middle of this universe; and from it
came the fumes of incense. And that place intermediate between the inner
veil, where the high priest alone, on prescribed days, was permitted
to enter, and the external court which surrounded it—free to
all the Hebrews—was, they say, the middlemost point of heaven
and earth. But others say it was the symbol of the intellectual world,
and that of sense. The covering, then, the barrier of popular unbelief,
was stretched in front of the five pillars, keeping back those in the
surrounding space.

So very mystically the five loaves are broken
by the Saviour, and fill the crowd of the listeners. For great is
the crowd that keep to the things of sense, as if they were the only
things in existence. “Cast your eyes round, and see,” says
Plato, “that none of the uninitiated listen.” Such are
they who think that nothing else exists, but what they can hold tight
with their hands; but do not admit as in the department of existence,
actions and processes of generation, and the whole of the unseen. For
such are those who keep by the five senses. But the knowledge of God
is a thing inaccessible to the ears and like organs of this kind of
people. Hence the Son is said to be the Father’s face, being
the revealer of the Father’s character to the five senses by
clothing Himself with flesh. “But if we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit.”30213021Gal. v. 25. “For we walk by faith,
not by sight,”302230222 Cor. v. 7. the noble apostle says. Within the veil, then,
is concealed the sacerdotal service; and it keeps those engaged in it
far from those without.

Again, there is the veil of the entrance into the
holy of holies. Four pillars there are, the sign of the sacred tetrad of
the ancient covenants.30233023[Elucidation III.]
Further, the mystic
name of four letters which was affixed to those alone to whom the adytum
was accessible, is called Jave, which is interpreted, “Who is
and shall be.” The name of God, too, among the Greeks contains
four letters.

Now the Lord, having come alone into the intellectual
world, enters by His sufferings, introduced into the knowledge of the
Ineffable, ascending above every name which is known by sound. The lamp,
too, was placed to the south of the altar of incense; and by it were
shown the motions of the seven planets, that perform their revolutions
towards the south. For three branches rose on either side of the lamp,
and lights on them; since also the sun, like the lamp, set in the midst
of all the planets, dispenses with a kind of divine music the light to
those above and to those below.

The golden lamp conveys another enigma
as a symbol of Christ, not in respect of form alone, but in his
casting light, “at sundry times and divers manners,”30243024Heb. i. 1. on those
who believe on Him and hope, and who see by means of the ministry of
the First-born. And they say that the seven eyes of the Lord “are
the seven spirits resting on the rod that springs from the root of
Jesse.”30253025Rev. v. 6;
Isa. xi. 10. [Elucidation IV.]

North of the altar of incense was placed a table,
on which there was “the exhibition of the loaves;” for
the most nourishing of the winds are those of the north. And thus are
signified certain seats of churches conspiring so as to form one body
and one assemblage.30263026
[“The communion of saints.”]

And the things recorded of the sacred ark signify
the properties of the world of thought, which is hidden and closed to
the many.

And those golden figures, each of them with six
wings, signify either the two bears, as some will have it, or rather the
two hemispheres. And the name cherubim meant “much knowledge.”
But both together have twelve wings, and by the zodiac and time, which
moves on it, point out
453the world of sense. It is of them,
I think, that Tragedy, discoursing of Nature, says:—

“Unwearied Time circles full in perennial flow,

Producing itself. And the twin-bears

On the swift wandering motions of their wings,

Keep the Atlantean pole.”

And Atlas,30273027Ἅ—τλας,
unsuffering. the unsuffering pole, may mean the fixed
sphere, or better perhaps, motionless eternity. But I think it better
to regard the ark, so called from the Hebrew word Thebotha,30283028 The Chaldaic תּיבוּחָא.
The Hebrew is תּ̤בָה,
Sept. κιβωτός,
Vulg. arca. as signifying something else. It is
interpreted, one instead of one in all places. Whether, then, it
is the eighth region and the world of thought, or God, all-embracing,
and without shape, and invisible, that is indicated, we may for the
present defer saying. But it signifies the repose which dwells with the
adoring spirits, which are meant by the cherubim.

For He who prohibited the making of a graven
image, would never Himself have made an image in the likeness of
holy things.30293029 [Elucidation V.] Nor is there at all any
composite thing, and creature endowed with sensation, of the sort in
heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, and the wings
are the lofty ministers and energies of powers right and left; and the
voice is delightsome glory in ceaseless contemplation. Let it suffice
that the mystic interpretation has advanced so far.

Now the high priest’s robe is the symbol of
the world of sense. The seven planets are represented by the five stones
and the two carbuncles, for Saturn and the Moon. The former is southern,
and moist, and earthy, and heavy; the latter aerial, whence she is
called by some Artemis, as if Ærotomos (cutting the air); and the
air is cloudy. And cooperating as they did in the production of things
here below, those that by Divine Providence are set over the planets are
rightly represented as placed on the breast and shoulders; and by them
was the work of creation, the first week. And the breast is the seat of
the heart and soul.

Differently, the stones might be the various
phases of salvation; some occupying the upper, some the lower parts
of the entire body saved. The three hundred and sixty bells, suspended
from the robe, is the space of a year, “the acceptable year of the
Lord,” proclaiming and resounding the stupendous manifestation of
the Saviour. Further, the broad gold mitre indicates the regal power of
the Lord, “since the Head of the Church” is the Saviour.30303030Eph. v. 23. The mitre
that is on it [i.e., the head] is, then, a sign of most princely rule;
and otherwise we have heard it said, “The Head of Christ is the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”303130311 Cor. xi. 3; 2 Cor. xi. 31. Moreover,
there was the breastplate, comprising the ephod, which is the
symbol of work, and the oracle (λογίον);
and this indicated the Word (λόγος) by which
it was framed, and is the symbol of heaven, made by the Word,30323032 And the whole place is
very correctly called the Logeum (λογεῖον),
since everything in heaven has been created and arranged in
accordance with right reason (λόγοις) and
proportion (Philo, vol. iii. p. 195, Bohn’s translation).
and subjected to Christ, the Head of all things, inasmuch as it moves
in the same way, and in a like manner. The luminous emerald stones,
therefore, in the ephod, signify the sun and moon, the helpers of
nature. The shoulder, I take it, is the commencement of the hand.

The twelve stones, set in four rows on the breast,
describe for us the circle of the zodiac, in the four changes of the
year. It was otherwise requisite that the law and the prophets should be
placed beneath the Lord’s head, because in both Testaments mention
is made of the righteous. For were we to say that the apostles were at
once prophets and righteous, we should say well, “since one and the
self-same Holy Spirit works in all.”303330331 Cor. xii. 11. And as the Lord is above
the whole world, yea, above the world of thought, so the name engraven
on the plate has been regarded to signify, above all rule and authority;
and it was inscribed with reference both to the written commandments
and the manifestation to sense. And it is the name of God that is
expressed; since, as the Son sees the goodness of the Father, God the
Saviour works, being called the first principle of all things, which
was imaged forth from the invisible God first, and before the ages,
and which fashioned all things which came into being after itself. Nay
more, the oracle30343034 i.e.,
the oracular breastplate. exhibits the prophecy which by the
Word cries and preaches, and the judgment that is to come; since it is the
same Word which prophesies, and judges, and discriminates all things.

And they say that the robe prophesied the ministry
in the flesh, by which He was seen in closer relation to the world. So
the high priest, putting off his consecrated robe (the universe, and the
creation in the universe, were consecrated by Him assenting that, what
was made, was good), washes himself, and puts on the other tunic—a
holy-of-holies one, so to speak—which is to accompany him into the
adytum; exhibiting, as seems to me, the Levite and Gnostic, as the chief
of other priests (those bathed in water, and clothed in faith alone, and
expecting their own individual abode), himself distinguishing the objects
of the intellect from the things of sense, rising above other priests,
454hasting to the entrance to the world
of ideas, to wash himself from the things here below, not in water, as
formerly one was cleansed on being enrolled in the tribe of Levi. But
purified already by the gnostic Word in his whole heart, and thoroughly
regulated, and having improved that mode of life received from the priest
to the highest pitch, being quite sanctified both in word and life,
and having put on the bright array of glory, and received the ineffable
inheritance of that spiritual and perfect man, “which eye hath
not seen and ear hath not heard, and it hath not entered into the heart
of man;” and having become son and friend, he is now replenished
with insatiable contemplation face to face. For there is nothing like
hearing the Word Himself, who by means of the Scripture inspires fuller
intelligence. For so it is said, “And he shall put off the linen
robe, which he had put on when he entered into the holy place; and shall
lay it aside there, and wash his body in water in the holy place, and
put on his robe.”30353035Lev. xvi. 23, 24. But in one way, as I think, the Lord puts off
and puts on by descending into the region of sense; and in another, he who
through Him has believed puts off and puts on, as the apostle intimated,
the consecrated stole. Thence, after the image of the Lord the worthiest
were chosen from the sacred tribes to be high priests, and those elected
to the kingly office and to prophecy were anointed.

3032 And the whole place is
very correctly called the Logeum (λογεῖον),
since everything in heaven has been created and arranged in
accordance with right reason (λόγοις) and
proportion (Philo, vol. iii. p. 195, Bohn’s translation).